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What Happened On Alabama Highway 36

 

This story took place in the summer of 1996, on rural Highway 36 near Lacey's Spring, Alabama, which is a small community located between Huntsville and Hartselle.

I was living in Birmingham, Alabama at the time, and my girlfriend then (now my wife) was with me for this experience. I am a professional musician, and I'd come up to Huntsville, Alabama for a gig I had at a local music hall just outside the downtown area of the city.

After my show, I packed up to leave, got paid, and we were on our way back to Birmingham.

It was approximately 2am as we were leaving Huntsville, and some inclement weather was beginning to form out to the west of the city, so my girlfriend and I opted for a short-cut route toward our destination and to possibly avoid the approaching storm.

We stopped once at a gas station on the main thoroughfare, Highway 231 (also known as Memorial Parkway), to get a bottle of water and some snacks for the hour-and-a-half drive back to Birmingham.

While in the store, the friendly clerk offered information that a tornado had been reported due west of Huntsville, and that we'd do well to keep the radio tuned to a local weather station if we were continuing on the road.

(The entire North Alabama area is considered a year-round "Tornado Alley," so while are always cognizant of weather, we simply monitor conditions and go about our lives.)

We continued out of Huntsville on Highway 231, crossed the Tennessee River and entered the tiny community of Lacey's Spring, Alabama. The skies looked ominous as we took a right turn on to Highway 36, which would eventually cross Interstate 65, leading us back to Birmingham.

Alabama Highway 36 is a rural, 2-lane state road that passes through several extremely tiny communities. There is only one traffic light on the entire 36-mile stretch, and save for a handful of houses and small businesses located along the road, so at night, the area is nearly pitch-black, desolate and seemingly deserted.

Even during daylight hours, traffic on Highway 36 is very light, usually one would occasionally see a sheriff's patrol car, dump truck or a small trailer with bales of hay.

On this particular night, however, my girlfriend and I got the scare of our lives as we turned west on to Highway 36. It was approximately 2:30am.

Small hail had begun to fall, and the winds were picking up. Thus far, the road was absolutely deserted and no light anywhere. The radio reported a possible tornado was just west of the city of Huntsville, which was now about 25 minutes north of our location.

What we saw on our drive in the next 30 minutes will haunt us the rest of our days.

We'd driven west on Highway 36 approximately 3 to 5 miles when the hail turned to light rain, and as we came around a bend in the road, we saw headlights... But something didn't look right.

The headlights we saw were not in horizontal array, but a vertical one, and they had obviously been set on "bright," what you might use in inclement weather. The vehicle was facing east.

We approached the headlights carefully, and as I slowed the car to a crawl and lowered my window, my girlfriend and I saw that the headlights were from a brand-new red SUV, which was lying on its passenger side on the edge of the road, interior lights on and engine running, and the driver's side door was inexplicably open.

I stopped my car completely and repeatedly yelled out, "Anybody in there? Is anyone hurt? Can you hear me? Do you need assistance? Anyone need help?"

I got no response at all.

The inexplicable thing was that the red SUV looked brand-new, and there were no marks or any evidence that the car had been in any sort of an accident or had been picked up by the high winds of a tornado.

Since our area of North Alabama is threatened by tornadoes year-round, I have seen literally hundreds of vehicles that have been flipped, rolled, or destroyed by the deadly force of a tornado.

Vehicles anywhere close to a tornado are ALWAYS covered in silt, debris, and usually many of the windows are blown out. The red SUV we saw was absolutely pristine... It looked as if it had been simply lifted by a giant hand and set gently on its side!

My girlfriend and I decided to continue on, hoping to flag down a sheriff's deputy if we happened to pass one. (We did not own cell phones yet.)

Just a couple more miles down Highway 36, we spotted the lights of yet ANOTHER vehicle stopped near the road ahead. As we got closer, we saw that this particular vehicle was a green SUV, upside down in the shallow roadside ditch, engine running, all lights on, driver's side door open, and no one anywhere around the vehicle.

Creeped out but still concerned, I lowered my girlfriend's passenger-side window and yelled for anyone who might need help. And again, no response whatsoever.

There was no evidence that a tornado had passed through the area, as there were no limbs down, no signs of debris or no trees bent or snapped. It was just a little rainy. But what happened next is one of the scariest things I have ever seen.

We continued west on Highway 36, and it was now nearly 3am. We rounded another wooded bend that opened into a clearing on both sides of the road, and already a little freaked out, I noticed the road seemed to be MOVING.

I slowed, and as we got closer, my girlfriend and I saw that the road, the shoulder, the ditches, EVERYTHING was covered in small frogs, hopping in all different directions.

And I don't mean there were a couple hundred frogs in the road... There were thousands upon thousands of frogs. They covered every inch of the road and shoulder as far as we could see!

Now, we were really scared, totally freaked out. Whatever we'd driven into, my girlfriend and I decided that we should get the hell out of there RIGHT THEN. The insane thing was that we kept driving, running over the frogs (sadly), but there seemed to be no end of them.

We estimated that we drove at least 3 more miles before we couldn't see any more frogs. They were EVERYWHERE. The road and shoulders of the road were inundated with small, hopping LIVING frogs everywhere you looked.

We saw no further cars on the road until we had to make our turnoff toward Birmingham.

By the time we reached the junction of Alabama Highway 36 and Interstate 65, we stopped at an all-night gas station to hop out and shake our heads.

We simply couldn't believe what we'd seen. Two different SUVs, one on its side and one flipped on its roof, but with no visible damage, the engines running and lights on, with the owners nowhere to be found...

...and what looked like a veritable Biblical plague of small frogs covering every square inch of a rural highway for probably 3 or more miles!

A few details:

Neither I nor my girlfriend had been drinking alcohol nor had ingested any mind-altering narcotics of any sort. Neither of us are prone to hallucinations, and we are both super-alert, highly educated, Christian people with no history of psychotic behaviors.

The next morning, we'd found that no tornado (or high winds) had been spotted, reported or recorded anywhere in the immediate vicinity of our "sighting," which ruled out that the "wrecked" SUVs and the frogs were a product of any weather-related event.

Seeing that we are extremely weather-aware, I immediately began research into the incident with the frogs.

Our area has a very high concentration of professional people educated on weather, science and psychology. I consulted with meteorologists, engineers, scientists, a psychiatrist, and even a couple of people who are known to be "lighting rods" for paranormal activity.

The scientists all agreed that frogs do have a mating season where they will make an exodus from their environment to begin the mating process, but since there were no large enough freshwater bodies nearby, the sheer number of frogs we witnessed could not be explained by animal biology.

The meteorologists all agreed that, during certain weather events such as a tornado or waterspout, it is highly likely that marine-dwelling animals like frogs could be sucked out of their watery habitat by the vortex of the winds, but they would likely be blown quite high into the air and will actually fall back to ground (usually) encased in hail, and very few (if any) animals would survive a fall from even a height of 20 feet.

Also, a waterspout or tornado would not simply pick up frogs, it would also pick up fish, birds and water-dwelling vegetation. None of those were present.

Therefore, if the frogs that my girlfriend and I witnessed had been sucked up by a storm before being deposited into the road in front of us, it is highly unlikely that many of them would still be alive, and ALL of them were alive. Furthermore, the sheer number of frogs and size of the area where we witnessed them rules out a mating migration.

Scientists and meteorologists all agreed that the number of live frogs we saw over so large an area populated by such small bodies of water (a couple of small lakes and creeks) makes any rational scientific or meteorological explanation impossible.

As for the "wrecked" but intact SUVs, area police and sheriffs had no reports of vehicle accidents in that area for that date and time, per my research.

The two people with experience in paranormal activity whom I consulted with were equally baffled.

Finally, I have quite a few experiences which I consider to be "paranormal" in nature, but no other experiences like this. What could this be?

The wrecked cars are one thing, but a plague of hopping, living frogs in every direction for at least 3 miles on Alabama State Highway 36?

All I hope for is some sort of explanation. This event (from 20 years ago) does not cause me any fear or anxiety. Just very scary and unexplained by rational thought and professional sciences.

Thank you for reading. Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated. Best to you all.

MK1

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, MK1, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

Sroy (4 posts)
 
2 years ago (2022-05-15)
Hi MK1. This is the second time I am reading this story after years because of its "truths stranger than fiction" nature. Those days I narrated it to my pre-teen kid and her friend during a drive. They were so impressed and freaked out they wanted to hear more such tales. Your experience seemed straight out of the Reader's Digest Book of Unexplained Mysteries.
One question- at the end of your journey did your Vehicle tyres have any evidence of your running over live frogs for three miles? Also I was thinking of extra terrestrial activity where the SUVs are concerned. And the inexplicable frog exodus may have been an unrelated parallel event or but may also be linked to extra-terrestrial trigger for their mass exodus out of nowhere.
MrsRamsay (guest)
+1
4 years ago (2019-12-09)
MK1, hi and thanks for the quick reply! Yes, I read through most of the comments last evening before posting and I thought you did a really good job in all four phases of this: your actual experience, writing your post, researching, and answering the critics!

I thought your grasp of the eeriness of the situation, your intuition, was obviously more developed than many people (driving through north Alabama, haha, had to make that joke since I'm next door in Georgia). Seriously though, the frog thing is wild and I suppose it will never be fully solved. I "slept on it" though last night and remember reading something over a year ago about some strange phenomena in and around Hunstville (and the Redstone Armory, which is where they do some interesting, classified work). If we let our imagination take us away... Even though this location is not directly adjacent to the military base... One has to wonder if certain entities, whatever they may be and wherever they may be FROM, have been attracted to the area and whether other strange things have occurred. The frog thing is gross (I really don't like the little critters) but the vehicles are really crazy. It's an X-Files episode for sure!
MK1 (2 stories) (28 posts)
+2
4 years ago (2019-12-09)
Hi. [at] MrsRamsay,

Thanks for reading my story and your comments. Respectfully, I encourage you to read all the follow-up comments to my original story.

While there are definitely very tiny bodies of water in the general area the incident occurred (and the Tennessee River is actually miles away from the spot where this story begins), the frog migration theory was debunked by scientists/naturalists I spoke with at the time of the incident, with two major points:

1) Frogs do not mass-migrate at that particular time of year. Highly improbable.
2) If a freak mass-migration HAD happened at that particular time, hundreds of thousands of frogs would have had to migrate for MILES through farmland to reach the Tennessee River. Unlikely, and someone would have noticed and reported it.

In the years since I posted this story, I have been contacted by paranormal researchers, scientists, debunkers and curiosity seekers alike, and all have agreed that I did my due diligence of trying to explain the incident I witnessed by calm and rational thought.

However, no one has been able to explain what I saw and the sheer magnitude of the experience. Natural occurrence or not, seeing a couple miles of road absolutely inundated with many hundreds of thousands of frogs is highly unnerving.
MrsRamsay (guest)
+2
4 years ago (2019-12-08)
So I'm years late, but this story intrigued me a LOT. I'm familiar with the Huntsville area, but mostly the east side. I googled the highway shortcut you talked about and looked at it from the air. There is tons of water around there, not visible from the roads, however. It's very near the Tennessee River, which in fact sort of wraps around the Lacy's Spring area (Lacy's Spring...indicates...a spring, again water) but there are also ponds and creeks, including things named Dry Creek Cove, etc. That likely explains the frogs. The two vehicles... I wonder if they actually went off the road because of the frogs? In any case, I think the commenters here were quite immature. This is, as you say, an amazingly dark and creepy road and even during the day there are many decrepit places and I would not want to really drive in this sketchy area, no offense to the people who live around there... I believe you were absolutely right to listen to your intuition and I would have been completely creeped out also. I think some people have no idea how isolated some of these roads are. Good story. Wish we knew what happened with the vehicles.
Manafon1 (6 stories) (712 posts)
+2
7 years ago (2017-09-14)
Hi MK1--I remember reading your trippy account when you initially posted it. The crab migration video from youtube you included the link for with your last comment was wild stuff. You can also find a number of impressive frog migration videos on youtube. Just type in "massive frog migration" and a plethora of some quite impressive footage will pop up.

Many of these videos specifically show small frogs, just as you describe, crossing roads in the American South. So at least this aspect of your account is verifiable. Especially at night, I can imagine that the sight of thousands of tiny frogs must have been a bit overwhelming. Particularly with all the other oddness you encountered that night.
MK1 (2 stories) (28 posts)
+3
7 years ago (2017-09-13)
Hi, all.

This is sort of an example of the kind of thing I saw, but this video is of a crab migration. Had this had been frogs at 3am, this was roughly what I witnessed.

Https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AOUleNVirGw#
ms_st0308 (6 stories) (66 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2017-07-07)
Just a thought, as I am in Alabama too. Hurricane Opal made landfall in October 1995 and produced a lot of tornadoes/straight line winds even into north and central Alabama.

I certainly do not have much knowledge into the life span and breeding of frogs, but with the overly wet conditions and with the small creeks in and around that area could it be possible for the existing frogs to have laid eggs that later hatched and grew into "adult" frogs?

I agree, the sheer number of frogs is bizarre but I have also had the unpleasant experience of driving over tiny little frogs during a period of heavy rain. Definitely not thousands, but probably close to 75-100? And this was in the Anniston/Oxford area where there are only small creeks and lakes scattered throughout.

Anyway, just a thought about the frogs. I have no idea about the cars.
MK1 (2 stories) (28 posts)
+2
7 years ago (2017-06-28)
Hi, [at] IsabelleVanP!

I appreciate your kind note. Yes, it was an extremely scary encounter. Still no rational explanation whatsoever. Cool that you're an X/rockabilly fangirl. I like all that stuff as well. Feel free to contact me with any questions. Be well. MK
IsabelleVanP (3 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2017-06-10)
Hi MK1!
I'm a lurker but I'm also a rockabilly/X fangirl. This story was creepy to read and it made me think of a Twilight Zone Episode as well. I seriously enjoyed it although I know you both didn't at the time. Thank you for sharing and I'm just having a punk fangirl moment so I'll go back to lurking now. 😁
micasa (17 posts)
+3
7 years ago (2016-10-15)
Tweed,
Thank you, I understand. I'm sure there are plenty of sites dedicated to those experiences. As it is, I am enjoying reading the experiences that have been published here.

😊
Tweed (33 stories) (2475 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-15)
Micasa,

Extraterrestrials are generally filed under 'Non Human Entities' or 'Misc', along with other entities and situations which fall under these categories. However, as this is a ghost site, I'm not sure whether or not UFO or alien encounters conform to the submission guidelines. With that said this topic is freely discussed if or when it's topical. It's not frowned upon. I'd guess, since we know next to nothing about extraterrestrials, they too would be paranormal by definition.

Hope this helps. 😊
micasa (17 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-14)
Apologies to MK1 for using this space.

I can't seem to find a category listing for extraterrestrial experiences and I am wondering if these are generally frowned upon.

It's no big deal really, I'm just curious.
Loganberry (10 posts)
+2
7 years ago (2016-10-14)
This does in fact sound a bit extraterrestrial to me. I can't say that I would have hopped out an immediately surveyed the area around the SUV's either (way too many things happen on deserted roads these days, let alone busy roads!). Honestly, I'm not sure a lot of you would either, it's the world we live in these days. I agree that it is definitely odd to see so many frogs, and I can't even imagine the feeling of running them over. Blech! I did read a story from Tampa in which 1000's of frogs showed up after a heavy rain, in which the soil was saturated and allowed eggs to hatch. Either way, sounds like you experienced a very weird encounter.
micasa (17 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-13)
MK1,
Thanks for the response. My first impression upon reading your account was that it sounded extraterrestrial in nature. Please excuse my first comment, after re-reading your comments after the fact I have changed my opinion.
That the vehicles looked to be in perfect condition, with lights on in and out, is what swayed me. Very frightening indeed.
MK1 (2 stories) (28 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-13)
[at] LouSlips,

Thanks for your comments. The area in question has no significant bodies of water. Swamps and marshland are almost entirely confined to the southern portion of the state of Alabama. There are a few swamps in north Alabama, but nowhere near my sighting.

An earlier commenter said that a body of water doesn't have to be large in size to produce a good bit of reptilian life, but as I said, in the immediate vicinity of my sighting, there were no bodies of water other than some tiny ponds and creeks many miles away. Hard to believe that many amphibians would have made a trek of that length.

As for the automobiles... My car's headlights were on "bright," and the "wrecked" automobiles both had their lights on. The area around both "wrecks" were clearly visible, as were the cars themselves. The rain was light, merely a sprinkle if at all. Visibility was quite good.

I'm certain all you have seen a rollover car accident in your time, and if you haven't, they are all over YouTube... There is ALWAYS debris (broken glass, oil, fluids, sometimes bits of metal) around a crash. There was NONE at the scene of either "wreck."
MK1 (2 stories) (28 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-13)
[at] micasa,

To be perfectly honest, the whole thing seemed extraterrestrial to me, from the very moment that we saw the first automobile. Nothing looked right. At all.

Didn't look anything like a "normal" rollover accident. (There was enough light from my headlights and their headlights to see the immediate area around us.) I'm telling you that there were no human beings in the vicinity of that "wreck."

Sorry if you misunderstood. In my initial story, I related that I talked with local media (meteorologists, etc). I did not contact the local police, in Birmingham, Alabama, where I resided. I did, however, reach out to news media there and had them check with affiliates and police contacts in the area of my sightings to see if anything had been reported, and nothing had been reported, or seen or investigated by local sheriffs of Limestone County, which was the area in question.

As for your "that's not a Good Samaritan" accusation... Read the other comments, and you will see where this has already been covered. I don't make a habit of blindly walking into situations which give me an uneasy feeling, especially at 2:30 in the morning in the dark on a deserted stretch of road. Something just didn't feel right, so... I would imagine that most of you would have felt the same caution.

I reported my story the best I could, as I'm certain that everyone who posts a story here could not possibly get EVERYTHING across.

Seeing my story as a whole reminds me of details I may have missed, so I included them in the comments... Which means I'm keeping with the agreed policy that I would "read the comments and participate in the discussion."

I did not have the privilege of six months of writing that story, nor an editor to ask questions or "poke holes" in the narrative. I just related the story the best I could. Again, I will reassure any naysayers that this story is 100% truth, and witnessed by my wife of nearly 20 years, as she was the "girlfriend" in the story.

Thanks for your comments.:-)
micasa (17 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-12)
Has it ever occurred to you that this may have been more extraterrestrial than spiritual? Please excuse any errors in spelling.
LouSlips (10 stories) (979 posts)
+4
7 years ago (2016-10-12)
Oconto, Wisconsin 1952; Black Lake, Idaho 1912-ish...although I think you mentioned there were no bodies of water in the area; from what I have seen of Alabama, there is plenty of swamp and marsh. Some species' eggs or other immature forms of amphibians can lie dormant for a very long time, especially in unsuitable conditions. Any chance there was a drained lake in the area?

As for the cars, I don't doubt there existence, but your account that they were in perfect condition is suspect considering you never exited the car... In the dark... In the rain.

Lou
micasa (17 posts)
+2
7 years ago (2016-10-11)
This is a tough one really. On the one hand I can understand the fear that could set in being out on a deserted road and coming across the things you did. On the other hand I have a problem with someone claiming to be a samaritan/christian not doing their due dillegence in a situation where there might be injured persons in the area of an obvious rollover, especially considering the lights were still on and door still open on the vehicle. Something just doesn't sit right with all of this. You claim to have been in touch with all of the so called experts after the fact but your original telling of this experience doesn't include you contacting local authorities in the immediate aftermath.
That bothers me.
MysteryResearch (23 posts)
 
7 years ago (2016-10-07)
That is so cool, MK1. My husband is also a musician, which is why I found your story interesting. I've been along on some weird late nights coming home after a gig.
MK1 (2 stories) (28 posts)
+2
7 years ago (2016-10-06)
[at] MysteryResearch, thanks for the very kind reply. Believe me when I say that I would love to debunk my "experience" with some good, solid science. Nothing would make me feel better! So thanks for a reasonably believable explanation.:-)

But the vehicles and the frogs together was just a bit much for a 30 minute drive!

And, by the way, you were super-close with the Black Flag reference... I don't know if you would have been familiar with the band I worked with, but it was X. We know all those Flag guys and that whole LA thing.
MysteryResearch (23 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-06)
Hi MK1,

Thanks for your comments and additional information. I do not doubt your account. In terms of credibility, I don't think the fact that you are a musician raises any red flags (maybe a Black Flag). Also I do not doubt that it was eerie seeing this in the middle of the night, after seeing the vehicles, and in a storm.

I like to think they came from the little streams and creeks, and possibly wetlands around where you were, and were looking for a larger body of water.

Best,
MysteryResearch
MK1 (2 stories) (28 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-06)
[at] MysteryResearch, you make a good point. I certainly don't doubt that there could have been some sort of mass amphibian exodus. Not beyond the realm of possibility, by any means.

The things, though, that don't make sense, are that my friends and contacts in the media and nature experts would have probably seen or gotten reports from others about such sightings, because as I've said, the frogs were EVERYWHERE, and there were no bodies of water in a 10-20 mile radius that would have been capable of containing the sheer number of frogs that we witnessed.

Perhaps it was simply a once-in-a-lifetime experience of nature, and for that I feel fortunate to have seen it. But local professional and private citizens were at a loss to explain just how that would have been possible.
MK1 (2 stories) (28 posts)
+3
7 years ago (2016-10-06)
Allow me to address a couple of the recent comments.

[at] DandK:

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but you are dead wrong here, on many levels.

If you read carefully, you will notice that cellphone use was not possible, and really the only traffic on the road at night is the occasional sheriff. There are no public payphones anywhere on the route, to my knowledge. So, stopping a making a call to report an accident was simply not an option.

Second, perhaps I wasn't clear, but when I reached my turn off point and stopped at a gas station, I reported what I'd seen to the clerk on duty there, and he just shrugged. He was a good ol' boy, and he just said something to the effect of, "Sheriff will be along there in a bit, he'll check it out." The man did not seem to believe me, and sort of blew me off.

Being a musician, I don't look exactly "normal," as I'm 6'1", 210 pounds and regularly sport a black leather jacket. Perhaps I seemed like some insane traveler who was just weird-looking and therefore crazy. I assure you that I am reasonable and level-headed in the worst of situations.

Frankly, I was pretty damn frightened about the frogs and the entire incident to know what to do!

Third, [at] DandK, as a Christian first and a Good Samaritan second, I NEVER hesitate to help out anyone in crisis, especially a car accident. I have pulled a few people out of wrecked cars, and even run across 4 lanes of traffic to help a motorcyclist who had a horrific crash just in front of us. So please, do not assume anything about my character until you find yourself in a similar situation.

Fourth, [at] DandK, I did not "wait to read about it in the news." If you'd read my story, you'd see that, at that time, I was a member of the media, and I consulted local news media reporters and police contacts and meterorologists. There were no reports of accidents on that road for that time period, and no reports of any storm damage or serious inclement weather in that general area.

Finally, I did not exit my vehicle at either of the "crash sites" because something just didn't seem right about either of them. With my headlights, the immediate area around both vehicles was very flat land, and there was no one visible around either wreck.

Couple that with no visible indicators of an actual accident (i.e. Shattered glass, oil spill, tire skid marks, miscellaneous debris) and those two "wrecks" just didn't make any sense, and I got a sort of weird and sinister feeling about them... To which the average human being would perceive to be beyond his/her understanding and probably cause fear and alarm... Which is precisely what happened.

[at] Matrix hit the nail on the head... We didn't know what was going to happen if we exited the vehicle... Both "wrecks" just didn't look right, and I wasn't about to subject myself or my wife to a feigned "accident" just to get robbed or killed. If I had been carrying a handgun, I might have possibly felt a bit safer actually getting out and investigating further.

To all, I will say that I am not the kind of person who is self-absorbed, narcissistic or the like. I don't have to make up stories to get attention, or seek any sort of fame for relating this experience.

A bit more of my background... I am a professional musician by trade and have toured the country more times than I care to count. Until recently, I was a touring member of one of the most legendary and influential Los Angeles punk rock bands of all time. I have had plenty of adventure in my life (cancer survivor, etc) and I need more "adventure" like I need a hole in the head.

So rest assured, everything I have related in my story and posts are true to the best of my knowledge, and are corroborated by a witness... My wife of 20 years who is the "girlfriend" in the story.

Thanks for your comments.
shelbyloree (5 stories) (285 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-02)
Very weird! My thoughts were the frogs had come from the mud with the rain also. I know farmers poison birds by the droves to protect their crops every year, and there is always a battle against various plagues of bugs and animals to save crops as well.

We may not realize the extent of population checks humans must do to maintain so much fertile farmland worldwide, but many species are checked yearly so they do not cause problems for farmers. Maybe the locals hadn't gotten to the frogs yet, and the frogs were congregating due to weather.

If the cars were running with headlights on and open doors with no one around, the drivers may have gotten out miles away, while the wind took the vehicles as they were (running, lights on, doors open). If that wind was in the shape of a funnel, I couldn't say. But the wind was probably up the road, or you had just missed it.

And good for you for not getting out of the car in the middle of the night, in the middle of a hailstorm to look for no one. I don't think anyone was waiting in the bushes getting ready to ambush you in such weather, but getting out to check would have been ridiculous. An injured person would have gone through the glass or would have made a mess getting out I imagine. It would have looked like a car accident, not from something out of The Twilight Zone.

Im sure the gas station was closed too, the 24/7 world only started recently, and hardly necessary in the middle of nowhere even today.

Anyway, thought I would throw my two cents in.
MysteryResearch (23 posts)
+3
7 years ago (2016-09-30)
Hi MK1,

Thank you for sharing your story. Although what you describe is unusual, there are possible natural explanations.

Amphibian swarms are a documented natural phenomenon. This has happened recently in China (Daily Mail UK: Tens of thousands of toads descend on town following heavy rainfall). The topic is also mentioned in a 2013 article in a journal called Animals (Frog Swarms: Earthquake Precursors or False Alarms?).

SUV rollover is also well documented. There was a Frontline episode about it (Rollover The Hidden History of the SUV). High wind, plus wet road conditions could have contributed to this. If this highway was anything like the rural area where I grew up (also a tornado alley) it was probably not all that well lit. There may have been damage that was hard to see. Another possibility is that a tornado had picked up the vehicles and set them there earlier, and the rain washed away the debris.

Take care, and try to remember, frogs are friendly and do not hurt people. In my opinion, you are lucky you got to witness a rare event in nature.

Best,
MysteryResearch
RedBlackRosemama (34 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-09-30)
Hello, I had never frogs I mean many on road before. But I live Louisiana and always have hurricane and I had seen tip over at the sale cars shop like the SUV many times from strongest hurricanes and yes once almost been tip over when mother forgot something in hotel and left me in the car I was scare when I feel the car about tip over winds strong very strong and hurricane that early morning maybe like 5am it's is scary.
Spockie (8 stories) (203 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-09-28)
I saw something on the Weather Channel last night about bunches of frogs sometimes appearing after rainstorms. It seems the frogs burrow into the ground during drought conditions and then when there is a rainy spell, they all come back out enmasse. This could explain what you saw, but the numbers you described are very unusual.
matrix899 (1 stories) (66 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-09-28)
It would be wonderful to always do the right thing, and it would be wonderful if every experience we had was perfectly explainable by the science we know.

This is a public forum, and we should state what the correct conduct should be. But we are not discussing correct conduct here, we are discussing typical human behavior in a given situation.

Healthy skepticism is good, and maybe every experience can be explained scientifically, or we can pretend that every experience can be explained. But I doubt that is true.
Tweed (33 stories) (2475 posts)
+3
7 years ago (2016-09-28)
I think DandK has a good point here.
Trying to imagine what this would be like, it'd be scary as. Would definitely NOT get out of the car for fears over my own safety. But finding the nearest phone and reporting this would be priority.
I'd assume the frogs to be something totally dodgy like animal smuggling. Just been reading a bit about weird animal smuggling attempts and thousands of frogs isn't much of a stretch, unfortunately.
The right gust of wind at the right speed could tip cars over without dragging them, an improbable scenario, but still possible.
Birds could've cleaned all the frogs up the next morning. Goodness knows what happened to the cars. Like MrMonty said, not everything gets reported.

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